In the cold winter of 1960, the north wind blew snow foam and hit Li Tiezhu on the face. As an unlucky guy who had just been reborn in the Year of Famine, before he could even get on the heated kang, he was kicked out by his brothers and sisters-in-law, Li Dabao and Liu Cuihua, together with his newlywed daughter-in-law Chun Xing, and his younger siblings Gou Sheng and Xiao Hua.
"Three shabby houses with air leakage, and you can count the cornmeal in a scoop, this is what you have!" Liu Cuihua put her hands on her hips and spat, "Don't come back to beg for food even if you starve to death!"
Li Tiezhu clenched his frozen fists and looked at the trembling family huddled in the corner of the dilapidated house, with wildfire igniting in his eyes. In his previous life, he was an old hunter who knew best about survival in the mountains. Now with these hands and this mountain, how can he let his family starve?
Carrying a rusty hatchet on his back and breaking into the vast forest, he used his unique hunting skills to drag a steady stream of prey back to the shabby house, from plump hares to ferocious wild boars. Chun Xing wrapped herself in a coarse cloth over the charcoal fire and boiled the life-saving broth in front of the smoky stove. Gou Sheng and Xiao Hua gradually turned red, and their timid eyes showed their dependence on "third uncle".
When Li Tiezhu carried back a 300-pound black bear and shocked the whole village, his brother and sister-in-law, who had once regarded him as a burden, came to the door with red eyes.
"Tie Zhu, for the sake of kinship..." Li Dabao rubbed his hands and laughed.
Liu Cuihua took over the topic: "We are your brothers and sisters-in-law! What's wrong with sharing some meat?"
Li Tiezhu spat on the door frame, and the snow foam stuck to the scar on his eyebrow bone: "When you threw us into the snow, why didn't you think about the relationship between flesh and blood?"
